This is a new move to me as I’ve never seen something quite like it before. Not only is Gana capable of supporting the weight of her partner while in a bridge, but she even did so without her arms for a couple of seconds.
An outstanding combination of flexibility and strength.
One of the best video courses to improve your flexibility comes from Gold Medal Bodies. Check it out here.
In this in-depth tutorial by Ginger Ninja Trickster, you’ll learn everything you need to finally perform your first kip up.
In case you’ve never tried to do it before, it’s best to start from the crouched position and roll back while keeping your lower back and hips up. After that you’ll need to kick your legs up in order to get used to idea that your legs need to go up first, before your body follows.
The third stage is to go from a kick-up to a bridge position, landing on the balls of your feet. Now you are ready to try and do a full kip-up. Ginger Ninja Trickster really goes deep into every little details in the video, so make sure you watch if from start to finish. Not everyone has the right amount of flexibility to perform this move, so if you are worried about that check out this resource to become flexible as fast as possible.
Gonna dip into the mailbag today and answer a couple questions.
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I had a question that relate to both my bridging, and hand balancing. When I do either, the blood rushes to my head very soon, not letting me hold either very long. Is this normal? Will it go away after more time? Are there any special ways to get around this? I would like to be able to work on both more than I am able to now because of that. Thank you for you great websites and emails!
Thank you,
Justin
That’s just a sign of gravity doing its job. The human body is not normally use to being upside down so when you start out it can cause you to feel like your head is about to explode.
I would guess that this happens to most people in one degree or another. And it will get better with time just as you become accustom to the position.
In addition, here’s two things to try out. Holding your breath compounds this problem. Make sure you are breathing easily while you bridge or do handstands. It can be tough in the beginning but you need to breathe for best results.
Second you can do an exercise specifically to get yourself familiar with being upside down. Just go up into a headstand (against a wall or not) and hold for a long time. With practice you’ll be able to do this for minutes at a time. And then you’ll be able to deal with blood rushing to your head.
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Handstands are really frustrating to me. For a while now I’ve been having consistent 3 sec handstands and it hasn’t been improving. I’m also a bboy and my planches are better than my handstands, I can hold a planche-ish thing with my body horizontal and my back bent with my legs slightly at an angle. Kinda like this \_. Any tips?
Nate
I think the fact that you are strong from break dancing may actually be holding you back on the handstand. The handstand is really a balanced position. You don’t want to have to rely on your strength to hold you there, unlike the planche.
Professor Orlick use to say that it was easier to teach a little kid the handstand than a strong weightlifter because the kid would have to find the balance, while the weightlifter would try to use his strength. If you want to hear more from Prof. Orlick check out the Hand Balancing Mastery Course.
Its hard to say without some more details but give either of these techniques a try. If you are underbalancing, going toward that planche, push back upwards into the handstand. If you find yourself overbalancing correct yourself and get back to neutral.
But the main thing is to just keep working on it. Set a goal to hit 5 seconds and work on that. Really get a feel for the position. In time it will come.
Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher
Diving into a few questions and comments today.
“In the hand stand, and especially in the bridge, the main persisting difficulty is an inherent wrist weakness. In fact I observe steady improvement in back and shoulder flexibility, but the wrist is always setting me back!”
Joseph
I know your pain Joseph, having my own share of wrist problems. But I’ve come a long way in part thanks to handstands.
Here’s a few things you can try out. Always stretch before hand balancing or bridging. Just open the wrist back as far as it will go. And afterwards its great to work it the other direction too.
Try working some of the positions of the fists as well. This is known to help strengthen the wrists.
Of course there is much else to do, including many mobility drills for the hands and fingers. Since this is a problem for many people I’ll be covering it in more detail in the future. But for now I hope that helps.
Onto another comment.
“I got it! Thanks a bunch. I’m pleased with the quality of the material and your service.
“The handstand is really one of the most difficult skill I’m trying to learn, I’m almost there. Been practising since august but I was doing it wrongly by starting to do the handstands and not the build up moves! now I know what I know I’m doing wrong.
“Unfortunately my online friend who is into handbalancing didn’t tell me about the build up moves so I ended up wasting a lot of time practising doing handstands immediately. And most of the resources over the internet failed to teach this important aspect in learning this skill. Out of desperation I even attended a gymnastics class once. After many months of practice (4months) out of 10 attempts 1 will get thru and I would consider that a lucky day if I could hold it for 3seconds! It got so frustrating that I was ready to give up.
“I’m not back to ground zero but I could feel its just a matter of time in learning this. I’ve already mastered the frogstand, headstand and now been practising the kick up. Next would be the forearm stand.
“Here in the philippines, there isn’t much interest in handbalancing. I could only see some B-boys doing a walking handstands but doing static holds? I’ve never seen one. Though when I saw the press to handstand I was blown away by some guy at the gymnastics class.
“Ok got to read the books and dvd! I can’t wait till I can master the handstand! Once I could balance for 30 seconds then on to the advance course.
“Handbalancing is truly a lost art. It’s great that you that you decided to open this resource site.”
Regards,
Gerald
Thanks for sending in the report Gerald. You are too right. Learning the handstand can be frustrating, especially if you take the long slow road of going right to it.
That’s why I created the Secrets of the Handstand Quickstart Guide to give you the lead-up stunts you mentioned and plan to attack the handstand in an easier way.
Once you have that its just a matter of time and practice. You’ll be holding a handstand for 30 seconds in no time.
“How do you correct the arch of the back in a handstand?”
Martha
Let me start off by saying that arching in a handstand is not wrong to do as many people believe. But if you want to straighten out here’s what to do.
Go back to the wall.
Walls are flat so kick up into a handstand and straighten out to the point where all the points on your body are in contact with it.
Of course, you’ll also bring your head down in between your arms and this alone will help to eliminate the arch.
But don’t expect this to go away overnight, and especially be able to balance in the position. You’ll have to work at it to re-configure the body to do as you please since an arched handstand is not only easier but more natural.
That’s it for today. Going to have some new stuff for you this week so stay tuned.
Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher
P.S. Frustrated with the difficulty of the handstand? Don’t know the best place to begin? Find the proper path with the Secrets of the Handstand Quickstart Guide
Joe Nordquest was a classic strongman back in the early part of last century. He was the brother of ‘The Young Sandow’ Alfred Nordquest.
Here are some of his hand balancing exploits. From Klein’s Bell in November of 1931:
Joe Nordquest performed a one hand stand and with the free hand lifted a 100 pound dumb bell off the floor and held the balance. He also has on numerous occasions done 28-30 hand stand press ups in succession on the floor.
From David Willoughby’s The Super Athletes:
He later put on some weight moving up from 168 pounds to 190. Even at this size he was capable of jumping off a 30 inch table onto the floor while staying in a handstand.
Here he is pictured pressing 388 in the shoulder bridge. This was before the bench press ever came to be. You think his success and strength in hand balancing helped him get to this level?
Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher
Got a question from Patrick. “I am a beginner at hand balancing. How can I find exercises and stretching drills thats will increase my abilities”
C’mon people. This is a call to all who submit questions. Be more specific. I can provide better answer when I know what you want. In fact the more detailed the better.But I will take a blind shot at this question.
To increase your abilities you need to work on the specific abilities themselves. I’m going to assume that you’re talking about your hand balancing abilities.
Depending on what you are specifically having trouble with this could mean any number of things.
If your having problems with balancing than I would recommend even easier skills than the handstand itself. Skills like the frogstand, headstand and forearm stand. Here’s the easiest way to learn how to do the handstand.
If you need strength I would recommend holding handstands against the wall and doing handstand pushups.
For flexibility, lets say in the shoulder region, you can do many drills. In a handstand against the wall you can bring your chest outward thus working the shoulder flexibility. That’s just one example of many. The gymnastic bridge also works wonders and for more than just the shoulders.
The concepts are universally applied to almost any exercise question. If you can analyze where you are at and where you want to be than break that down into things to work on you can attain any goal.
It’s a useful skill to have. Breaking down the seemingly complex into simple steps to follow.
Good Luck and Good Hand Balancing,
Logan Christopher
P.S. Now if you want the whole hand balancing plan laid out for you than I recommend you check this one out – Hand Balancing Mastery Course.
Going to step away from hand balancing today and a bit more in the coming weeks to focus on related acrobatics and various tumbling moves. And I’ll be sharing many of them in video form like today!
First up is a bridging movement that I’ve been throwing in my routine the past few weeks.
This move involves going from a back bend or gymnastic bridge than turning face down. In order to do this you support yourself on one arm and turn to come on all fours. From here you continue the movement turning back into the bridge.
I’m calling it the Gymnastic Bridge Turn-over.
Just doing a single one of these moves is great. It requires great shoulder flexibility and strength. Can you say stability? In addition it will engage just about every other muscle in your body especially your abs, back and legs.
If one is no problem for you then do as I do in the video, stringing a bunch together to complete an entire circle. If you want a real challenge try to do five full circles each way.
Don’t feel bad if you can’t do this one. If this is a hard move for you it means one thing…you need to work on your gymnastic bridge. By improving your shoulder flexibility in this movement you can work up to doing the move shown here with ease.
So get on your back, press up, straighten the arms, and try to extend your chest over your hands.
You may also find that you can flip one way but not the other. Keep working at it until you can move seamlessly in and out of position in every way.
Good Luck and Good Tumbling,
Logan Christopher
P.S. Got another video next time that covers the very basics and why they’re so important regardless of who you are. In this and all things the fundamentals are of highest importance.
Check out this video of some wrestler’s bridge gymnastics.
[youtube:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MD56_U–TI0]
Here is another video I took while I was at my gymnastics class. Let me start by saying don’t try this at home. It took a lot of effort to work up to this level. I didn’t jump into this on a whim.
It is actually several different feats strung together. Falling into a bridge, kicking over, kicking back, then standing up. Not the most graceful one I have ever pulled off. Still need some work especially on the Standing Up part.
Of course this can be done by with a gymnastic or hand bridge. I can do the gymnastic bridge version a little easier. And this one does not take so long to work up to, as far as neck strength is concerned.
The Wrestler's Bridge
Great for strength and flexibility all up and down the spine and more.
Either way it is a good trick to throw into you hand balancing routine or practice.
Good Luck and Good Bridging,
Logan Christopher
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